What Is BT Yahoo?

BT Yahoo emerged from a partnership between British Telecommunications and search giant Yahoo in 2003. A BT Yahoo mail account came free with a BT Broadband subscription. BT Yahoo mail accounts used the extension name @BTinternet.com (example@BTinternet.com), rather than the usual @yahoo.com (example@yahoo.com). With the premium mail account, users could keep the BT email address, even after dropping BT Broadband services.

BT Yahoo Accounts

BT Yahoo accounts included access to Yahoo Messenger and SSL technology, along with a personalized home page that enabled users to pin feeds and entries. Users also got a Flickr pro account, smart spam filters and virus scans, along with storage for large files and up to 11 email addresses. Users could send and receive files that were up to 25MB. BT Yahoo integrated with mobile devices, giving users access to email from any Android or iOS phone or tablet.

BT Yahoo Split

In 2013, BT and Yahoo split ways. BT received complaints from customers regarding hacking, spamming and phishing incidents in their email accounts. The telecommunications arm of BT Group ditched Yahoo and formed a partnership with Critical Path to supply email services for its customers. Critical Path specializes in email services and its headquarters are in California.

Implications of the Split

For Yahoo, the split highlighted the company's issues with email security, and came at a time when the company was struggling with declines in traffic due to stiff competition from Google and Facebook. Yahoo was also facing declines in investor confidence, having recently rejected a Microsoft buyout. Continued breaches in email security, including one that caused a customer lockout at the end of 2013, also did not help. For BT, the split meant lots of work, as they needed to revise their customers’ accounts. Customer addresses remained the same, but they needed to change their passwords immediately.

BT Post Yahoo

BT is still experiencing negative repercussions of their separation from Yahoo. In March, an unnamed whistleblower claimed that a BT security flaw exposed user credentials, resulting in the United Kingdom's Information Commissioner’s Office launching an investigation into the issue. In response to questions about the investigation, BT sent a statement to The Register. The statement said that the company had fixed the issue that relates to the “unverified assessment," that they were developing new services with partners, and that the company audits, tests and fixes issues before going live.